Morning Routine
by Amy-Star
Summary: Riza Hawkeye goes through her morning routine while on vacation at home from the military academy.


**Title: **Morning Routine

**Pairing:** Slight Royai

**Characters:** Riza Hawkeye, Roy Mustang

**Rating:** PG

**Summary :** Riza Hawkeye goes through her morning routine while on vacation at home from the military academy.

**Disclaimer:** Sadly I do not own FMA

**Warning:** None really, it's safe.

The sound of the furnace roaring through the walls of the old house woke up Riza Hawkeye like it did every morning.

Soft brown eyes came into sharp focus as Riza sat up in bed, her body stiffening for a second when the cold air of the room surrounded her. She made a mental note to check if there was, something wrong with the furnace as she swung her legs out of bed, then made her way to where she had laid out her clothes the night before. Dressing quickly and quietly, Riza put on the brown cotton pants and green wool sweater before reaching over to her dressing table to pick up her mother's white ivory comb.

As a young girl, Riza's mother would brush her hair every morning with that same comb while singing in her soft voice as gentle hands caressed and smoothed Riza's hair.

Riza tugged the comb quickly through the short blonde locks; the one benefit of cutting her hair was the reduction of time it took to maintain it. The day before she went off to the military academy Riza decided that her long hair was a vanity that she as a soldier could not afford. Inspecting herself closely in her small round mirror on her dresser table Riza put away her comb and neatly folded her pajamas before leaving her room.

The hallways of the houses were silent and cold, the only sounds that echoed in the empty house were the soft groans of her feet walking on the old wooden floorboards. Riza had been attempting to train herself to walk across them without making a sound to improve her sniper skills that would require her to move silently before killing her target. She flinched at that thought mentally reminding herself that she was on vacation from the academy and that she did not have to think like a soldier all the time.

A small voice in the back of her heard wondered if that was true.

On her way to the kitchen, Riza poked her head in the library, though it lacked the cleanliness and organization of a real library, to see if her father's apprentice was still awake. She found Roy Mustang sleeping with his head resting on a pile of parchment he had been writing on, his left hand was still clutching his pen. A small smile graced Riza's lips as she noted the usual neat raven black hair was now tangled and messy, and that there was a high chance he accidentally slept on wet ink again leaving the notes he had taken to be stamped on his cheek. Despite the comical image, he was portraying Riza felt slightly disappointed since normally if he had managed to stay awake until morning he would have breakfast with her before dragging his tired mind and body to bed.

Riza indulged at staring at Roy Mustang's calm sleeping face before quietly shutting the door and continuing into the kitchen. Riza did not even bother to wonder where her father was, the man moved through the house like a ghost. Not always seen but his presence always felt, that and he often appeared out of nowhere.

She had a simple meal of oatmeal with honey and almonds while drinking a cup of strong coffee with two spoon of sugar. _'As dark as the devil's heart but sweet as sin,' _her roommate at the academy called it and had persuaded Riza to start drinking it that way as well. Before that, Riza had felt that drinking coffee was for the undisciplined people could not wake themselves up properly in the morning also her father never cared for it.

After washing the dishes, Riza went to the backdoor of the kitchen where her coat, boots, and hunting rifle stood waiting for her. When fully dressed and the leather strap of the rifle strung over her left shoulder Riza opened the door, the crisp early morning air hit Riza immediately making her face tingle with small pricks of coldness.

The sky was a pale blue almost white in color, but there was a small gathering of dark clouds in the western mountains that meant it was probably going to snow tonight. Riza made a mental note to remind Roy Mustang to shut his window since he often left it open, for all his supposed brilliance Riza was astounded by how forgetful her was. Riza climbed over the old wooden fence that surrounded the house jumping to the field over grown with weeds on the other side.

The house and estate used to be in better condition, her ancestors had a reputation of being great farmers and businessmen. Her father cared little about either of those occupations and instead pursued alchemy. In the days when her grandmother was still alive, she would complain that her father seemed determined on destroying the Hawkeye name by getting lost in his books and diagrams, and that the least he could do was to become a state alchemist. Riza did most of the small handy jobs but it was far from enough to keep the place from slowly crumbling, she had tried to teach Roy Mustang some of them but he also seemed to be as uninterested as her father was. Though Riza wondered if it had more to do with the time he nearly hammered a nail through his hand when fixing a leak in the roof. Riza knew very little about his background but she figured he had to be at least from the upper middle class, considering his inability to take care of himself.

The over grown grass was covered in a light frost and it crunched underneath Riza's boots as she walked through till she reached a crumbling stone wall that divided the Hawkeye property with their neighbors'. Riza crouched down to pick up a pile of cans and lined them up on the wall roughly two inches apart; she then turned counting her steps until she reached twenty-five feet away. In one fluid motion, Riza shifted the rifle from her shoulders into her hands, closing one eye as the other focused on the target and she pulled the trigger.

A loud crack similar to the sound a firecracker made thundered in the air followed by the annoyed cries if disturbed birds and the shuffled sounds of wings as they took flight into the air. There was one less tin can lined up on the wall.

Riza had never been fascinated with guns as a child, they were after all weapons used in the military and therefore her father despised them. When she took her first marksmanship class, her instructor informed Riza that she was a natural, he used the exact phrase of, "It's like the gun is a part of you, you're one and the same." Riza felt that was a rather poetic and unnecessary way to praise someone and the looks of admiration or jealousy she received from her fellow recruits unnerved her. In truth, Riza neither hated nor loved using a gun she just knew she was good at it, and that was all she needed to know.

There were times when she wondered if her father hated her now because she was a weapon for the military.

When the last of the cans had fallen, the clouds were now gathering closer and Riza decided that she had done enough practice this morning. After collecting the cans once again, Riza moved back towards her house wondering whether she should start the laundry or work on cleaning her guns. She liked to keep herself busy in the morning especially in that old house, if she did not then Riza would have to acknowledge the suffocating silence and lack of warmth. The minute she opened the back door of the house Roy Mustang suddenly appeared with a barely contained expression of panic on his face. Riza stepped back in surprise not use to someone coming to meet her at the door, or for anyone to be awake in the house at this time.

"Ah Miss. Riza you're back," he greeted politely Riza only nodded back as she closed the door and started to take her coat off.

"There seemed to be a problem with the furnace," he continued on Riza just thought he was making small talk until his next words made her freeze in horror, "So I thought I would go try and fix it…and well…I think I made it worse."

Riza gave him a crossed look, which he responded with a sheepish smile like a child caught trying to steal a cookie only to break the jar in the process; it made it impossible to stay mad at him.

"I'll go take a look," she answered calmly though a part of her still wished there were bullets left in the rifle.

"Thank you," He replied warmly with his best charming smile that made Riza faintly uncomfortable, "I know you can fix it."

Somewhere deep down Riza knew that Roy Mustang was going to make a habit out of breaking her normal morning routine, but she still did not know if she was happy about that or not.

Tasha O: I hope everyone enjoyed that, it's my first time writing Riza so I hope I managed to get the character ;)


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